LIVES OF JOHN LENNON

ALBERT GOLDMAN
Book Number: 85557
Product format: Paperback

Look beyond the legends of Lennon to the man behind the music. After six years of research and some 1,200 interviews, this collation of the many faces of John Lennon looks extraordinarily deeply into his life, from his traumatic childhood, to the world behind closed doors with Yoko. All of these accounts are accompanied by insightful photographs ranging from Tittenhurst Manor with his Rolls and driver, Les Anthony, to candid portraits of both the original Beatles (George, John, and Pete Best), and Lennon in Hamburg in Spring 1961 (a favourite picture of Lennon which he called 'The Beauty and Spirit of The Beatles'). Uncover the influences on Lennon's music, from Roy Orbison, to the pun in Bing Crosby's 'Please, lend your little ears to my pleas', and discover the crippling anxiety behind the aged appearance of Lennon in the Sgt. Pepper sessions thanks to a toxic combination of heavy LSD doses and the Tibetan 'Book of the Dead'. Along with these key aspects of Lennon's life, Goldman explores the many figures who came in and out of his world, whether that was Lennon's love for both Yoko Ono and May Pang, his silencing Peter Lawford by seizing his milk shake and downing it, or kicking back with Ringo, Harry and a myriad of stars (including Keith Moon, Roger Daltrey and Mick Jagger) at El Padrino, their arrival signalling the bartender to start shaking up triple brandy Alexanders. Even as millions adored him, Lennon poisoned himself with drugs and self-hatred. When he was assassinated in 1980, the world mourned him as a martyred saint, standard-bearer of a cultural revolution and musical genius. Paperback, black and white photos, heavyweight 720pp.